The 12 best onscreen Elvis actors, ranked
How does Priscilla star Jacob Elordi stack up against Austin Butler, Kurt Russell, Bruce Campbell and other actors who tried to capture The King?
Film Features Elvis
When Sofia Coppola’s new biopic Priscilla opens in theaters on November 3, Jacob Elordi (Euphoria, The Kissing Booth) will be joining an elite club of actors who have had the privilege of playing Elvis Presley on screen. The numerous fictional depictions of The King run the gamut in terms of authenticity, believability, and entertainment value. Which isn’t surprising, considering that the pitfalls of playing the charismatic superstar are perhaps more pronounced than for any other music icon. Does an actor attempt to re-create Presley’s electric hip-swiveling and powerhouse vocals? Or does he reinvent, seeking truth in essence rather than literal accuracy? We’ve seen varying degrees of success with these different approaches.
Last year, Austin Butler’s version of the icon in Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis earned him an Oscar nomination. Now that he’s left the building, a new contender has arrived to claim the throne. We’ve taken the occasion to rank the best Elvis portrayals, from big-screen films to TV movies and miniseries to the flimsiest of Vegas impersonators. Read on to see where Elordi ranks among screen legends like Kurt Russell, Val Kilmer, and yes, even Harvey Keitel.
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When did Elvis ever play a Les Paul?
Also, I am going to start saying “I didn’t do that for you. I did that for rock and roll.” at every opportunity. It’s going to be effervescent!
I can’t think of a time. Scotty Moore would’ve given him a funny look.
“When did Elvis ever play a Les Paul?”And when did Elvis ever take a solo? I think they might have confused him with Carl Perkins.
The King practicing his Hot Licks:
I know it’s not exactly a portrayal but this list needs 3000 miles to graceland.
What? No love for Jonathan Kite?
I haven’t seen the miniseries with Rhys-Meyers, but in this clip his moves are too herky-jerky. People debate how Elvis sang, but there’s little debate the boy could move. Russell’s portrayal is the one I recall best and to me it is the best. Interesting list, though.
That dancing was atrocious.
What no Chris Isaak, His Entire Career?Incidentally, the late, legendary British DJ John Peel once played Isaak’s Can’t Do a Thing (To Stop Me) and followed it by saying “Yes I can, mate, I can take your awful CD out of the machine and throw it as far away from this studio as possible.”
Michael St. Gerard played him in the Jerry Lee Lewis biopic and the Quantum Leap episode where Sam leaped into Elvis. DOn’t remember much of his acting, but he looked just like him
What about Michael St. Gerard? He played the King several times most notably for the 1990 ABC tv series, Elvis.
Might be too on-the-nose, but Michael St Gerard should be somewhere on a list that includes Harvey Keitel and Jack White.
St. Gerard gets my vote, if only because he played in Elvis in four different projects: Great Balls of Fire, Heart of Dixie, the 1990 Elvis TV series, and an episode of Quantum Leap.
Nothing tops TORTELVIS
Fuck yes!These guys are one of my favorite things ever.
One of the best shows I’ve ever seen. Those guys were the best.
I’ll see your Tortelvis and raise you: El Vez!
I wish they’d tour again.
Aww HELL yeah!!! Saw them in Tucson when I was in grad school. Absolute blast of a show.
HOW IS THIS NOT NUMBER 1?!!
There are many reasons why I believe the AV Club to be unqualified to do this list.
The Elvis performance I think of is not an actor playing Elvis, but an actor playing an Elvis impersonator. Burton Gilliam “We’re the Flyin’ Elvises! Utah chapter” is one of those small roles that singularly elevates a movie. I laugh every time I think of that scene.
Golden Girls or GTFO
I worked on the Jonathan Rhys Meyers Elvis shoot for several days, and he did not “stay in character” on set. As prep and performance support, the aftershave/clothes/pre-scene music pump-up may be true, but that’s a far cry from Method or staying in character.
I guess I never doubted the Elvis in Bubba Ho-Tep was the real deal, I wasn’t sure about JFK though. I remember telling a co-worker about the movie, and he was really interested in it (the Elvis impersonator switching places with the real Elvis, then dying part), when I got to the mummy part, he actually got upset and said that knowing me, he should have known it would go that way.
“I remember telling a co-worker about the movie”
And you DIDN’T tell them about the mummy?
Heh — I remember my wife reading the description on the Netflix sleeve and being interested… until she got to JFK and the mummy.I don’t remember if she ever watched it. It’s one of my favorite movies.
I was going to protest if there was no Jack White.
Look OUT, man!!
Same here
Michael Shannon looked like he was 71 years old. It was remarkable how many people were like “he looks JUST LIKE Elvis” and I wondered and pulled up a photo of 1970 Elvis and- yeah. Shannon was not good casting and one wonders if he took that part as a lark.
That was one of the most bizarre casting decisions I’ve seen. I feel like they just realized what a fever-dream the whole event was and said “fuck it, let’s get weird”.It’s the second movie made about the meeting, previously Bob Gunton played Nixon (I forget who played Elvis)
Shannon as George Jones kind of throws me off as well….
1. BUBBA HO-TEP1A. TRUE ROMANCE…11. everything else.
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Aw, this list ain’t no good.
I went to see Bubba Ho-Tep on opening night expecting the kind of silly, campy horror film you would expect from a Bruce Campbell vehicle. What I did not expect was just how melancholy and full of regret the main characters were. I got the delightfully weird movie I anticipated, but I never expected all the emotional undertones. (I can say the same thing about Everything Everywhere All at Once.)
If someone has not seen Bubba Ho-Tep, they must do so at once.
I still got to get to that one.
Seriously.
“If only I’d treated Priscilla right. If I could’ve told my daughter I loved her. Always the questions. Never the answers. Always the hopes… never the fulfillments.” kills me everytime
I expected no less from the director of Phantasm
Ronnie McDowell, who’s had a successful country career in his own right but will always be known for his Elvis-related work, sometimes plays a little venue in the rural Tennessee county where I was a newspaper reporter and editor for 35 years, and I got to do phone interviews with him a couple of times and saw his show once. He’s really a nice guy, and I always enjoyed talking to him. His first big hit, right in the wake of Elvis’ death, was a hastily-assembled single called “The King Is Gone,” which he sang in his amazing Elvis voice, and which led to the soundtrack work for the Kurt Russell movie. He then struggled to introduce himself as his own personality, with more standard country hits. Weirdly enough, he has a hobby of painting and some of his paintings of Disney characters have actually been bought by the company. https://www.t-g.com/stories/i-still-enjoy-it-singer-songwriter-has-no-plans-to-retire,12533?
Vernon himself lent Russell one of Elvis’ Vegas-era jumpsuits to wear during filming. Not sure I’d be willing to climb into one of Elvis’ Vegas-era jumpsuits.There’d be lots of Elvis still inside it.
“Sweat actually cleans this suit”
Steve Jones playing the “ghost” of Elvis in Jim Jarmusch’s 1989’s Mystery Train.
There was more of Kilmer in the True Romance trailer than final film cut. I think that was a good call since he’s entirely in Clarence’s head, but Kilmer’s voice performance was fantastic.
How about that guy named Elvis Presley in “Elvis: That’s The Way It Is” – no other one is better
That’s My Elvis
All In Elvis’ Family
My Mother The Elvis
Scarecrow & The King
Remington Presley
Elvis P.I.
Hunk-a Burnin’ Love Boat
Elvis Knows Best
Mr. Elvis’ Father
Graceland R.F.D.
My Favorite Elvis
Misfits Of Elvis
Elvis Is Enough
Elvfeld
Elvis’ Creek
One Elvis Hill
The E-Team
As Elvis Turns
St. Elviswhere
Mystery Elvis Theater 3000
Jake And The Fat Elvis
Love, Elvis Style
2 Guys, A 14 Year Old Girl, Elvis And A Pizza Place
Elvis, later known as Elvis’ Family, later known as The Presley Family
Three Men, A Baby And Elvis, Who Will Marry The Baby On Her 14th Birthday
To Elvis, On Her 14th Birthday
I see nobody saw The Identical. The weird I think Christian made movie about Elvis and his twin that lived in this version.
It’s not really about Elvis and his twin; it’s about an Elvis surrogate and his twin. BUT… Elvis apparently exists in that movie’s world. So, how in the fuck was this Elvis surrogate allowed to have a career? Shouldn’t have the real Elvis sued his ass into oblivion? Did the filmmakers not realized that they made their movie about the world’s greatest Elvis impersonator impersonator!?
Yeah its incomprehensible and maddening and hard to forget.
One damn line in a movie that just casually mentions Elvis’s existence breaks the whole fucking film. I’ve never seen something like that before. That is unprecendent incompetence in filmmaking.
Wow, I just read the synopsis of that. Wow. Is it good enough to so-bad-it’s-good-watch it?
Yes. It very much is.
David Keith should star in a movie with Keith David.
I thought about that and started designing the poster, with the two of them staring each other down, divided by a big X. Title: The Parallax Brothers.
I wonder how confusing that would be on set.Director: “Hey, David!”DK and KD: “What’s up, boss?”Director: “Hey, Keith!”DK and KD: “What’s up, boss?”
Add the guy who played Murphy Brown’s secretary in one episode.
I am so pleased, and unexpectedly so, to see Bruce Campbell’s Elvis in Bubba Ho-Tep on the list. I was so ready to type a reply disparaging this article for neglecting it, but lo and behold there he was.
I don’t believe you left out the greatest Elvis impersonator of all Andy Kaufman:
Fuck Elvis.
What, no Kevin McDonald?
Here’s my take on HBO’s Vinyl: 3 fantastic episodes, two or three shitty episodes that sunk the series, and a couple episodes of unnecessary throat clearing. Great cast. Yes, too many coke-snorting sequences cribbing the visual shorthand of both Goodfellas and Casino. 3 best episodes were: The Elvis Episode, The Buddy Holly fantasy/car wreck episode, and … maybe there were only two great episodes. Each main character basically gets to discover a genre or sub-genre. (The kid from The Boys finds himself in the emerging Disco scene, for example.) Ray Ramano gets a focus episode where he discovers a guys who is a very weird hybrid of Scott Walker (the 70’s singer) and Billy Joel and Father John Misty – so I guess that was my other favorite ep. I was pulling for the show and it’s sad that it tanked. It’s downfall ruined the relationship between HBO and Terrence Winter, Scorsese, and Mick Jagger.Anyway the Elvis episode was good. I found the scene below on YouTube, but even better is the scene in the penthouse hotel room where Elvis gets excited to sign with Richie and Zak’s record label, until Colonel Parker pulls his leash.
What, no Ryan Styles or Greg Proops?
Everybody Proops
What, no Nic Cage?
No. No Nic Cage.
Kurt Russell hands down. But although he didn’t look like Elvis, Ron Livingstone’s incredible portrayal in Hotel Shangri-La is way up there.
Who was the best Gladys Presley? My vote is for Shelley Winters.
Ironically, the answer is Gladys Knight.
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you’re too old to date Elvis.
Nice
You wouldn’t want to miss Ted, Dougal and Jack’s contributions on Craggy Island…
I’d say the Elvis in Forest Gump passes some of these…
It’s weird that you’re surprised an Irish actor made a great Elvis. A lot of Southern vocabulary and vocal tics come from Ireland, the poor Irish people who moved to the South are the foundation of some of what made Elvis, Elvis.
Shouldn’t Elvis Presley be the #1 best onscreen Elvis actor?
you’d like to think so, wouldn’t you?
12 Elvises sounds like it could be a Tarantino movie.
Kurt Russell was probably the closest. Don Johnson would have been good with a better script. The problem with the most recent big-screen Elvis portrayals is most of the actors really don’t look like Elvis. There are COUNTLESS impersonators who look much more like Elvis than these big names in Hollywood do. Back in his heyday, Eddie Miles looked A LOT like Elvis. Currently, Elvis impersonator Jack Bristow probably looks the most like Elvis. None of the current actors really look like E. I mean, it’s hard for me to even pretend Butler or the guy in the Coppolla movie is Elvis, when they both look so much unlike him. I know these movies have their own followings, but I remember seeing Elvis perform in the flesh–these guys just don’t pass muster.
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